Rosneft to Buy Lukoil Venezuela Stake Amid $13 Billion Spree

Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil
producer, plans to invest $13 billion in five projects in
Venezuela over five years and buy at least part of OAO Lukoil’s
stake in a producing field in the South American nation.

Rosneft will buy half or the entire 8 percent stake that
Lukoil owns in Junin 6 block in the Orinoco Oil Belt, Rosneft’s
Venezuela country head Jerome Auzenne told reporters yesterday
at an oil event in Maracaibo, Venezuela. “We might buy all of
it or with might split it with” Gazprom Neft OAO, he said.

Rosneft will make the $13 billion investment as the company
builds on the personal friendship between Russian President
Vladimir Putin and Venezuelan authorities, he said.

After the deal, the Moscow-based company will raise its
stake in the Junin 6 project to as much as 32 percent. State oil
company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, known as PDVSA, owns 60
percent, while Gazprom Neft has 8 percent.